Thursday, September 13, 2018

Google Tape Proves Conservatives Will Never Get a Fair Shake

Breitbart News posted a leaked video recorded by Google shortly after Donald Trump was elected president. The contents aren't all that surprising. It shows an all-hands meeting in which co-founder Sergey Brin and other top executives express profound shock, dismay, and sorrow at Trump's election. The leaders vowed to thwart Trump and defeat him and his populist agenda.

Brad Parscale, campaign manager for Trump 2020, tweeted that Google needs to explain why the words of their leaders aren't "a threat to the Republic":

.@google needs to explain why this isn’t a threat to the Republic. Watch the video. Google believes they can shape your search results and videos to make you “have their values”. Open borders. Socialism. Medicare 4 all. Congressional hearings! Investigatehttps://t.co/jlbSgMMrLT

If we had video of a hypothetical all-hands meeting at any of the other social media companies, such as Twitter, Youtube, or Facebook, their executives would say exactly the same things, express the same remorse at Trump's victory, and vow to stop him and his agenda. The same could be said of the top traditional news media--New York Times, Washington Post, AP, Reuters, and so on.

We always knew what Google's executives thought behind closed doors--the video merely corroborates the obvious. And we know what the other big tech companies think of Trump and his conservative agenda without needing videos to prove it.

Meanwhile, censorship on social media continues and is currently revved up into high gear. Alex Jones has been banned for life from twitter. Brandon Straka, founder of the #WalkAway movement, has been banned from Facebook. Author Phyllis Chesler wrote an article on "feminism" on Facebook, and it was promptly blocked.

Anne Marie Waters, leader of the anti-mass migration political party "For Britain," has not been banned:

Twitter is now openly BANNING high profile right-wing political figures.

Anne Marie Waters, the leader of the "For Britain" party was permanently banned.

But these are merely the latest examples of hundreds or thousands which could be found--censorship of varying degrees on the social media platforms aimed at conservatives.

What to do? Congress can haul to the leaders in for questioning, and talk is growing of breaking up these monopolies. Donald Trump Jr. said this issue isn't going away "because I don;t think it's changing." He would prefer conservatives in Silicon Valley create an alternative, "and then I'd help promote the platform and I'd be all over that."

Many rank-and-file conservatives hope that President Trump will move away from Twitter to an alternative. And if he did, Twitter would lose 50+ plus users overnight. But such a big exodus is unlikely to happen. Which alternative to go to? The others that could be mentioned are struggling, and Trump would clearly prefer that the major players clean up their act rather than go elsewhere.

But they won't clean up their act. They are what they are. The Google tape is from one company--the same sort of video could have been made at any of the other major players with the same sentiments expressed.

Conservatives aren't getting a fair shake and can't expect one in the future. These companies have a passion for censorship and will force millions on the political right to go elsewhere, as a necessity. A conservative suite of social media platforms will be needed as things are only getting worse.

Tech executives and their staffs are great at information technology but horrendous at free speech, fairness, ethics, journalism, and the values of mass media and communication. Sadly, they are in charge of both.